​September 11, 2001. 25 years ago today.


Twenty-five years. A quarter of a century. Somehow, that still feels almost impossible to say.


Think about how much life has happened since that morning.


The Baltimore Ravens had just won the Super Bowl. The first Harry Potter film had not yet been released. iPods were brand new. There was no Facebook, Instagram, YouTube or iPhone. Most of us had never heard the word “Google” used as a verb. The world of 2001 feels both familiar and incredibly distant.


Children who watched those events unfold are now parents and grandparents. Careers have been built, marriages celebrated, loved ones lost, children born and grown. Entire generations have come of age knowing September 11 only as history.


But for those of us who remember that day, it is still deeply personal.


Today we remember the 2,977 innocent people who were killed, and the families and friends whose lives were changed forever. And we remember with profound gratitude the firefighters, police officers, paramedics and other emergency personnel who ran toward the danger while others were running away. 343 FDNY firefighters alone lost their lives that day, and many more first responders have since died or become seriously ill from the consequences of their service.


Twenty-five years can change almost everything around us. But courage, compassion and the willingness to help another human being in their darkest moment should never change.


#911 #RememberAndHonor #obgyn #ladydocfolsom #ruthhaskinsmd

​Gloria Steinem is gone. The fight she helped begin is not.

Gloria Steinem died this week at 92, a journalist, writer and pioneering feminist who spent more than five decades fighting for women’s equality, reproductive freedom and a stronger voice for women in American life.

She co-founded Ms. magazine and the National Women’s Political Caucus, helped bring issues such as workplace discrimination and reproductive rights into the national conversation, and remained an outspoken advocate for equality well into her 80s.

But perhaps her greatest legacy was something less tangible: the insistence that progress requires participation.

Rights that were once unimaginable became possible because women organised, marched, voted, spoke out and refused to accept “that's just the way things are.”

Today, many of those same rights are being challenged again.

So perhaps the best way to honour Gloria Steinem isn't simply to remember her.

It's to keep going.

Register. Vote. Speak up. Organise. Defend reproductive freedom. Defend equality. And when someone tells you that one person can't make a difference, remember the women who spent their lives proving otherwise.

Gloria Steinem once said she was proud of how far women had come and angry that we were still fighting the same old battles.

Rest well, Gloria. Thank you.

#RuthHaskinsMD #OBGYN #LadyDocFolsom#GloriaSteinem #WomensRights#ReproductiveFreedom #VotingRights#Democracy

There is something about September that feels like a reset.

The days begin to shorten, summer starts to fade, and suddenly everyone is back to schedules, school, work, sports and the familiar rush of everyday life.

Before the calendar completely takes over, take a moment to think about your health.

When was the last time you had your annual exam? Have you been putting off that mammogram, screening, or conversation about something that has been bothering you? Maybe you have questions about contraception, menopause, pregnancy, or simply something that doesn't feel quite right.

Don't ignore the small things. Your body has a way of getting your attention when you don't listen the first time.

September is a good month to check in, ask questions and make your health a priority, not because something is necessarily wrong, but because prevention and early detection matter.

So, as we say goodbye to summer and welcome fall, make room on that increasingly crowded calendar for the person who is usually taking care of everyone else.

You deserve a little attention, too.

Here's to a healthy, happy September!

www.ruthhaskinsmd.com
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#ladydocfolsom #ruthhaskinsmd #OBGYN #WomensHealth #PreventiveCare #HealthyWomen

​Title X is a federal family-planning program created in 1970. For more than 50 years, it has helped millions of Americans access affordable preventive healthcare, particularly those with low incomes or without insurance.

Title X supports birth control, pregnancy testing and counseling, STI testing and treatment, infertility services, and breast and cervical cancer screening. Importantly for some, Title X does not fund abortions.

Now the Trump administration is attempting to change the rules. The proposed requirements would push Title X providers to promote marriage and parenthood in counseling, place greater emphasis on natural family planning, and impose new restrictions involving gender, diversity and inclusion. California isn't taking it quietly.

Attorney General Rob Bonta has joined 22 other states in suing the administration to protect Title X funding. California has the largest Title X program in the country, serving more than 460,000 people. There is plenty worth protecting.

Contraception prevents unintended pregnancies. Screening detects cancer earlier. STI testing prevents disease and complications. Family-planning services give people the information and care they need to make informed decisions about their health and their futures. It saves money. Preventing unintended pregnancies and identifying health problems early is considerably less expensive than dealing with the medical and financial consequences later.

California has a long tradition of standing up for access to healthcare. This is another fight worth having because allowing ideology to dictate medical care threatens not only reproductive healthcare, but the integrity of our healthcare system as a whole.


www.ruthhaskinsmd.com


#ladydocfolsom #ruthhaskinsmd #OBGYN #TitleX #WomensHealth

​There are some days when the world seems to lose a little more color.

Today, we say goodbye to Tim Curry, 80, whose extraordinary career gave us everything from the deliciously wicked Dr. Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show to unforgettable performances in film, television and on stage. He had a voice, a presence and a mischievousness that simply belonged to him.

Yesterday, we lost Dolly Parton, also 80 - a woman who somehow managed to be larger than life while making millions of people feel as though she was sitting right beside them. Singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman, philanthropist and, perhaps most importantly, an extraordinarily kind human being. Her Imagination Library alone has put millions of books into the hands of children.

Two very different talents. Two very different lives. But both understood something important about being human: make people laugh, make people feel, and leave the world a little better than you found it.

As a doctor, I spend much of my life thinking about how we keep people here. Days like today are a reminder that medicine can give us more time, but it cannot give us forever. What we do with the time we have is the part that matters.

Rest peacefully, Dolly and Tim. Thank you for the music, the laughter, the theatre, the memories and for making so many lives a little brighter.

#RuthHaskinsMD #LadyDocFolsom #OBGYN #DollyParton #TimCurry

​A Monday morning thought: there is no love quite like a mother’s love for her baby.


It begins long before you meet them — a tiny heartbeat, a growing bump, a thousand hopes and a love that somehow arrives before the baby does.


And then they’re here, and suddenly your heart is walking around outside your body.


Here’s to all the mothers beginning another week with that extraordinary, exhausting, beautiful job of loving someone more than themselves.


www.ruthhaskinsmd.com


#RuthHaskinsMD #OBGYN #LadyDocFolsom #MothersLove 

We talk a lot about what pregnant women should eat, drink, take and avoid. But there is another exposure we don't always think about: the air we breathe.


A new study of 64.5 million pregnancies across the United States found that wildfire smoke has become the leading source of unhealthy fine-particle pollution exposure during pregnancy. And here in California, wildfire smoke is hardly an abstract concern — it is increasingly part of summer life.


Wildfire smoke contains tiny particles called PM2.5 that can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. Research has linked exposure during pregnancy with an increased risk of preterm birth and other adverse birth outcomes.


So, when the smoke rolls in, don't simply look out the window and decide whether it "looks bad.”


Check the AQI (air quality Index)
If air quality is poor:
• Reduce strenuous outdoor activity
• Keep windows and doors closed when practical
• Use your HVAC system on recirculate and consider a HEPA air purifier
• If you need to go outside when smoke levels are high, a well-fitting N95 can help filter fine particles
• And if you're pregnant, especially during a significant smoke event, take the air quality seriously.


You don't need to panic. You just need to pay attention.


Because during wildfire season, protecting your health can be as simple as checking the air before you check the weather.


www.ruthhaskinsmd.com


#ladydocfolsom #ruthhaskinsmd #womenshealth #OBGYN